The Muséum des sciences naturelles d'Angers (commonly called Muséum d'Angers, as opposed to the arts museums, called Musées d'Angers) is a municipal museum in Angers (Maine-et-Loire, France). Dedicated to Natural History, the Muséum d'Angers houses in its collections about objects, including birds, shells, fossils, insects and herbarium samples, as well as hundreds of specimens taxidermised or in liquid, skeletons, minerals, technical instruments and Documents. The Muséum d'Angers receives annually about visitors, as well as school groups, interns, researchers and volunteers.

History

Origins

Open to the public since 1801, the Muséum d'Angers has a long and rich history.

The initial nucleus of the collection dates from the French Revolution. By the Decree of 22 November 1790, Gabriel Eleanor Merlet de la Boulaye (1736–1807) is assigned the gathering of all books and natural history collections seized in the national houses. Recovered from the whole region, especially from the houses of emigrants, they are initially stored in Saint Sergius' Abbey, Angers. Unfortunately, they were plundered by the Vendeans who besieged Angers in December 1793.

In 1795 the Central School of Maine-et-Loire was established in the Barrault House. Joseph-Étienne Renou (1740–1809), collaborator of Merlet, is appointed to the professorship of Natural History and, with what remained of the collections at Saint Sergius' Abbey, forms a natural history collection for teaching in the new school. The collections were enriched thanks to Louis-Marie de La Révellière-Lépeaux (1753–1824), member of the Directory.

La Révellière-Lépeaux invited Renou to Paris in 1798, where he was allowed to receive objects from the National Museum of Natural History, including a group of 12 fossil fish brought from Italy (Monte Bolca) by Bonaparte in 1797, which still exists with their original labels.,

Public museum

The collection finally opened its doors to the public as a Museum of Natural History on 5 May 1801. In 1805, when the Central School was abolished, the museum became municipal, while remaining in the Barrault House, together with the Museum of Fine Arts.

The Muséum d'Angers quickly attracted interest and more items were acquired. In 1806, Étienne Geoffroy Saint-Hilaire (1772–1844), on behalf of the National Museum, sent important fossils and casts to the Muséum d'Angers. The number of visitors is high, but after the death of Renou (1809) the administration of the Museum went through a troubled period.

Guilloteau, the naturalist's assistant, managed the museum during the time of the directors Bastard (who is also director of the Jardin des plantes d'Angers and pays less attention to the museum) and de Tussac (who worked in Paris). In 1821, Auguste Nicaise Desvaux (1784–1856), a botanist, replaced Guilloteau as naturalist's assistant and was appointed director in 1822. Desvaux tries organize the collection and quarrels with the municipality to solve the numerous logistical problems of the museum, without results.

Expansion

It was only under the direction of Alexandre Boreau (1803–1875) that the museum was enlarged, with new halls on the first floor of the Barrault House being inaugurated in 1849. The same year the museum was enriched with the collection of Pierre-Aimé Millet de la Turtaudière (1783–1873). His collection consisted mainly of fossils from the tuffeau limestone and faluns of Anjou, but today it has almost entirely disappeared. In 1864, a temporary exhibition of geology became a permanent exhibit. In 1871, the Society of Scientific Studies of Anjou (SESA) is established by a group of scholars strongly linked to the museum. In 1883 Alphonse Milne-Edwards (1835–1900), Professor of Ornithology at the National Museum, donated 65 birds to the Muséum d'Angers.

The main site of the museum remained the Barrault House, but in 1885, the town of Angers decided to purchase the Soye collection, which consisted of several thousand fossil samples. At this point, the number of palaeontological specimens becomes too large for the premises and are placed in the Old Town Hall, constituting a Palaeontological Museum. The geological collections joined them soon after. In the same year, a Holzmaden ichthyosaur cast is added to the collections, purchased at the Cantonal Museum of Geology in Lausanne, where the original still stands. An original ichthyosaur fossil from Holzmaden would be added to the collections later.

Botanical collections had been developed in Angers since the creation of the Society of Botanophiles in 1777. Preserved in the Jardin des Plantes during most of the 19th century, the herbaria were re-housed in 1895 in the Old Mansion House, the north wing of the Old Town Hall, adjacent to the Palaeontological Museum. The SESA followed suit. Alexandre Boreau's herbarium was bought by the municipality in 1875, and that of James Lloyd (1810–1896) was bequeathed to the city in 1897. All herbaria have been grouped at the Arboretum Gaston Allard since 1964; the SESA accompanied this move. From 1898 to 2005 these collections formed the Botanical Museum.

Under the director Georges Bouvet (1850–1929) many objects entered the museum (the number of samples has more than quintupled) and a general classification of the specimens was completed. His successor, Olivier Couffon (1882–1937), donated 12,000 local geological and palaeontological samples from his own collection. Prehistory collections were kickstarted at the end of the 19th century, especially thanks to the Paleolithic site of Roc-en-Pail, Chalonnes-sur-Loire (Maine-et-Loire).

Growth continues In 1958, under the direction of Philippe Maury (1892–1978), the zoological items left the Barrault House and were installed in the Demarie-Valentin House, which became the Zoological Museum, near the Paleontological Museum. The Zoological Museum opened its doors on 29 April 1963. The two establishments were eventually reunited to recreate the Museum of Natural History in 1990, and the two buildings were connected in 1991 through a path along the ancient walls of the town of Angers, allowing visitors a continuous journey between the zoological rooms and the palaeontology gallery. In 2005 the Botanical Museum, while remaining on the site of the Arboretum, was absorbed by the Museum of Natural History, which changed its designation to the Museum of Natural Sciences. On 1 January 2017, the Muséum d'Angers was attached administratively to the other five museums of the town of Angers, under the same directorship.

Continuity and integrity

Unlike most other natural history museums in France, the Muséum d'Angers and its collections have not suffered from either of the two World Wars. Moreover, no fire, flood or disaster destroyed or damaged the museum's collections; the greatest hazard being the Vendean pillage in 1793. Even if, over time, many pieces have been lost, even stolen, the Muséum d'Angers retains a rare continuity and integrity for a museum more than 200 years old.

Museum Missions

The Muséum d'Angers follows the National Museum by adopting five main missions: curation of collections, dissemination of knowledge, expertise, pedagogy, and scientific research (yet the latter two are only achieved in Angers through mediation, object loans and hosting of trainees and external researchers; a scientific project is sometimes set up under the purview of the Muséum). It is part of networks dedicated to museums and contributes to national and international patrimonial databases for the benefit of scientists and the general public. The Muséum d'Angers subscribes to ICOM's definition of museum and is thus "a non-profit, permanent institution in the service of society and its development, open to the public, which acquires, conserves, researches, communicates and exhibits the tangible and intangible heritage of humanity and its environment for the purposes of education, study and enjoyment".Statuts de l'ICOM art.2 §.1 http://icom.museum/the-vision/museum-definition/ The Muséum d'Angers is labeled "Musée de France", law nr 2002-5 of 4 January 2002.Base Museofile des musées de France, site culture.gouv.fr

Buildings

The Muséum d'Angers is established in two sites: the central site of the museum, in the town centre of Angers, and the site of the Arboretum Gaston Allard.

Central Site

The central site is housed in two buildings of distinct origins, connected by a small garden sitting on top of the medieval walls, the Demarie-Valentin House and the Old Town Hall.

The Demarie-Valentin House was built by Jean-François Demarie around 1800 on the site of the former parish church of Saint-Michel-du-Tertre, destroyed during the Revolution. The interior layout of the Demarie-Valentin House is surprisingly unique in its neoclassical style: through the front door, a high staircase leads on to a round courtyard dominated by a circular balcony. The garden vestibule connects two octagonal rooms together, each in its turn giving passage toward wings embracing the garden; a colonnade lends the garden façade an "antique" allure. Bequeathed to the city of Angers by its last owner in 1958, the house was used to host the zoology collections. This building houses the museum's reception desk, the laboratory of taxidermy-restoration and part of the reserves. The Demarie-Valentin House has been registered as a national heritage site (Monument historique) since 28 August 1995.

The Old Town Hall dates from the 13th century. The palaeontology collections have been installed, since 1885, in the former Great Hall of the Municipal Council (1529–1823, then the Great Chamber of the Court of Appeal between 1823 and 1885), which includes beautiful wood panelling and a door carved by the woodcarver Pierre-Louis David, father of the famous Angevin sculptor of the same name, known as David d'Angers. Today, the office of the director, other working offices, the library and part of the reserves are housed in this building.

Arboretum Site

The site of the Arboretum Gaston Allard mostly houses herbarium collections in the residence of Gaston Allard (1838–1918). Allard, an Angevin botanist, started the plantations around his beautiful mansion of the Maulévrie in 1863. The creation of the Arboretum dates back to 1882., In 1916, Allard donated his Arboretum to the Pasteur Institute. In 1959, the town of Angers bought back the Arboretum Gaston Allard from the Pasteur Institute. The site also hosts the Société d'études scientifiques de l'Anjou and the Society of Horticulture of Angers and Maine-et-Loire.

Museum life

A museum is not composed only of showcases and visitors: there is at the Muséum d'Angers a dynamics often unknown to the public.

The welcome team is the most visible face for visitors. Responsible for ticket sale, surveillance of exhibition rooms, monitoring of exhibits, and visitor safety, welcome agents are the hinge between the public and other professionals behind the scenes of the museum.

The curators are responsible for the preservation and management of the collections as well as for the setting up of permanent and temporary exhibitions. The laboratory, with its taxidermist-conservator, is equipped for the preparation of specimens dedicated to exhibitions, conservation or even research. A technical team can intervene for the manufacture of showcases, shelves, storage, transport, etc. From time to time, the Museum's collections are enriched by donations from individuals or institutions seeking long-term conservation of their collections, which are often carefully collected throughout a lifetime, and it is up to these professionals to take Decision whether to accept them or not, to restore them or not, to expose them or not.